James and a photograph from 1978
Among the books in James’s apartment, a portrait of his father at thirty-one began with a small family photograph.
James’s sitting room is arranged around books and somewhere comfortable to read them. Tall shelves line the room, a chair sits near the windows, and his father’s portrait hangs nearby. It is a picture of a much younger man than the father James first remembers.
He found the photograph again while sorting family pictures. In the story’s 1978 print, his father wears a cream shirt with a broad collar, his forearms folded and his head turned slightly to one side. James had always noticed the collar. At fifty, he found himself noticing his father’s age instead: thirty-one.
He left the print on the table after putting the others away. It was a version of his father he wanted to see more often, and he decided to have it painted for the room where he spent his reading afternoons.
The small photograph was soft in places. In his discussion with Lucien at Atelier Vigée, the starting point was what they could see clearly: the turn of the head, the folded arms and the slight smile. The painting did not need an invented setting or sharper detail everywhere.
James kept the cream shirt, including its very particular collar. A dark frame suited the pictures and furniture already in the room. The result gives the young face more space than the small print did, without dressing his father for a different decade.
The photograph is back in its box, where James can find it. The portrait is near his reading chair. The rest of the sorting is not quite finished.
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